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The Murder of Sherlock Holmes
Premise After the publication of her first mystery novel (thanks to her nephew Grady), Jessica Fletcher, a widow from Cabot Cove, Maine, travels to New York and attends a costume ball at her publisher's affluent estate. While there, Jessica must bring her sleuthing skills in her books out into the real world when a guest dressed as Sherlock Holmes is murdered. Synopsis Jessica Fletcher, a widow from the sleepy town of Cabot Cove, Maine, is thrilled and somewhat surprised when the mystery novel she wrote in her spare time is published, all thanks to her nephew Grady. Jessica heads off to New York where her nephew and his girlfriend, Kit Donovan, meet her at the train station. Jessica gets thrown into the world of publicity and signs autograph after autograph, but soon begins to realize it's not all it is cracked up to be. Jessica also meets her publisher, Preston Giles, a dashing older man who Jessica begins to show a slight interest in. After being insulted and harassed by interviewers of all sorts, Jessica is ready to call it quits, but when the charming Preston Giles convinces her to stay for the weekend to attend a costume party he is hosting, she decides to stay. Jessica is escorted to Preston's glorious and affluent mansion where she meets several of Preston's family and friends, including the Broadway composer, Peter Brill, Grady's employer Captain Caleb McCallum, who is dressed as Sherlock Holmes, and his neglected wife Louise, and the posh Ashley Vickers, who also works with Grady. Jessica improvises a costume (Cinderella's godmother) and goes down to attend the costume ball, where the night seems to fly by as she is romanced by the alluring Preston Giles. But the fun is soon interrupted when Grady sees a light in his room from outside. Grady runs upstairs to his room, with others in pursuit. They discover a private detective Dexter Baxendale snooping around the bedroom. Preston quickly evicts him from the premises. The next morning, Kit discovers the body of Caleb McCallum floating in the pool, shot in the head. The police arrive and Jessica decides to do some amateur sleuthing and deduces that the body in the pool is not Caleb McCallum, even though the body is wearing the Sherlock Holmes costume. They soon discover Caleb alive and they find that the body is in fact, the private detective, Baxendale, wearing the Sherlock Holmes disguise. Jessica then deduces that the intended victim may have been Caleb, but the killer, seeing the Sherlock Holmes outfit, thought it was Caleb and shot Baxendale. But what was Baxendale doing wearing Caleb McCallum's Holmes' costume? Jessica intends to find out. She continues sleuthing and discovers Louise and Ashley have alibis, but then she learns that Caleb McCallum was the one who hired the private detective because he suspected someone was stealing secret documents from his office. Jessica begins to look closer at Ashley. Also, Caleb tells Jessica anyone could have taken the Holmes costume from the hall closet. Then, to Jessica's surprise, Grady is arrested for the murder (the private detective was in Grady's bedroom snooping). Jessica is now more than determined to find out who killed the private detective. The plot thickens as Caleb McCallum is found murdered on his yacht. Jessica looks now even closer at Ashley Vickers, and suspects her and her accomplice are stealing the documents, and knowing that Caleb was onto them, Ashley killed him, thinking it was Caleb she was shooting. Jessica and Grady sneak into Ashley's office and Jessica deduces Ashley and the composer Peter Brill were in on it together. Jessica confronts them and they admit to stealing the documents, but they do not confess to the murder. Jessica then figures out who the real killer is. She heads back to Preston Giles's mansion where she confronts the real killer: Preston Giles. Jessica figured out that the intended victim was indeed, the private detective, because the automatic lights at the pool were on when the private eye was murdered, so the killer would have been able to see who he was shooting. Jessica also remembers the private detective recognizing Preston Giles and commenting on Preston's costume: Preston was the Count of Monte Cristo that night. Preston pulled off a heist many years ago, and went to prison. But he escaped and destroyed his other partners in crime financially many years later: just like Monte Cristo did. The private eye recognized Preston and the Monte Cristo costume jogged his memory and decided to confront Preston: the private eye was one of Preston's partners in crime many years ago who Preston destroyed financially. Preston had to kill him or he would reveal who Preston was. Then Preston dressed him up as Sherlock Holmes to make it look like the killer was intending to kill Caleb. He then killed Caleb to further throw the police off of his trail. Jessica, who had a love interest in Preston, is upset that he was the killer, but nevertheless, turns him in and decides to head back home to Cabot Cove, but when Kit informs Jessica of a murder in Central Park that has the police stumped, she begins to have second thoughts. Starring Regular Cast *Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher Recurring Cast *Arthur Hill as Preston Giles *Michael Horton as Grady Fletcher Special Guest Stars *Ned Beatty as Roy Gunderson *Brian Keith as Captain Caleb McCallum Guest Stars DVD Release This episode was released with the other 21 episodes of the first season of Murder, She Wrote in a variety of formats, the DVD's didnt contain any special features. See Also *Murder, She Wrote: Season One *Coventry House Publishing *New Holvang *New Holvang Police Department External Links Category:Shot Category:Murder, She Wrote episodes